You got friends where?

The band that plays at the bar I work at takes requests, provided of course they are paid requests and if you want Freebird it is $50.00. A few weeks ago a girl walks up and drops $20 in the tip jar and says she wants to hear that oasis song by Garth Brooks, the singer says he doesn't know any song called oasis by Garth Brooks. The girl says yes you do, it is that one that goes I got friends in oasis, so Friends in Low Places has officially been rebranded by the band as Friends in Oasis.

Focus: What songs did you have the words wrong to?

 

For the longest time, I thought Van Halen was signing "animal" instead of "Panama". I still try to convince people that's what they're saying just so I don't feel like a total idiot.

I also had no idea Steve Miller was singing "jet airliner" and would make up my own words every time I heard it.

And I can't be the only one that thought Manfred Mann was singing "wrapped up like a douche" instead of "revved up like a duece", can I??

 

In college, it was pretty standard for everyone to sing along with early REM with just phonetic quasi-words.

One of my friends used to sing "Big ol' Jed had a light on." Of course, there's an obscure Rush song called Superconductor and she used to sing "sleep with the doctor," so she may just be weird.

 

Heh, that reminds me of when I was a kid and I loved the movie Grease. The song Hopelessly Devoted To You, I totally didn't understand what she was singing in the chorus. I'd just go "da-da-dee-dee-do-da to you-ou-ouou." I finally knew the words when I got Olivia's greatest hits album and it was helpfully the name of the song.

 

Louie, Louie by the Kingsmen and What's the Frequency, Kenneth by REM are classic versions of this.

There's some top 40 song that came out a couple of years ago that sounds like they're singing "Mexican Donkey" over and over again. That phrase is so stuck in my head I couldn't begin to tell you what the real name of the song is.

 

It was so indecipherable that the FBI spent 2 years investigating it to see if they had snuck in some obscene lyrics.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/2...alizing-copyright-office-must-have-them.shtml

 

It was an Usher song my wife was listening to, no idea the song title. But the line goes "cause on a one to ten, she is a certified twenty" I always thought it went "cause on a one to ten, she is a certified tranny". I still like my version better.

 

I'm assuming that you were listening to "Get Lucky" by Daft Punk and Pharrell.

One of my friends thought the refrain to Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" was "I've got a smooth vagina, I've got a smooth vagina..."

 

I remember Kids in the Hall or somebody doing a whole skit about this lyric in the 90s, but I can't find it on youtube...

 

That's it! Nicely done.

 

My husband used to think Daft Punk's "Get Lucky" was "I rub a Mexican monkey".

I used to think that Gwen Stefani was singing "You're really ugly underneath it all", instead of "really lovely". Kind of changed the tone of the song.

 

My favorite (not my favorite) thing is arguing with somebody who won't believe they're wrong. (and, in some cases, internet lyrics are wrong) Just to go ahead and get this out of the way, the Black Crowes' version of "Hard to Handle" -

Pretty little thing, let me light your candle, cause mama I'm sure hard to handle now, yes sir am.
not
Hey little thing let me light your candle, cause mama I'm show hard to handle now, mess around
or
Hey little thing I'm a proud Chicano . . .

Otis Redding wrote that AND recorded it, and you can hear his lyrics plain as day.

 

I had a friend in high school who was really into the guitar (he eventually got his Master's Degree in Classical Guitar, by the way.), and he'd bring it to school every day and play it whenever he got a chance, but he was CONSTANTLY fucking up song lyrics.

One memorable time, he was on a Sublime kick, and he was learning all of their songs. When he would sing "Santeria," he would sing the line:
"Well, I'd pop a cap in Sancho and I'd slap her down" as "I'd slap her dad around."

Now, at the time, I didn't know the lyrics myself, and when I asked him why Bradley would slap his girl's dad around for HER indiscretions, he said:

"Uh, well, he just never got along with his girl's dad."

Another time, he insisted that the line "You wreck me baby" by Tom Petty was actually "You ripped me baby," even though he was OBVIOUSLY saying "wreck."

Come to think of it, that guy was also full of all kinds of bullshit, made-up "facts" that he would spout off like it was god's-honest-truth.
Ex: "It's not illegal to smoke marijuana, it's only illegal to possess it." He seemed to forget the fact that you are in possession of it while you're smoking it...

He was a cool enough guy, but he could really piss me off sometimes with his stupidity.

EDIT:

That's nothing, dude. "Yellow Ledbetter" is even worse; he sounds like he swallowed a handful of Quaaludes, and washed them down with a bottle of Old Crow.

 

I thought that Weezer was saying "ass wiped" instead of "ass wide" when I first heard the song "Hash Pipe."

alt focus: When Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal" came out when I was in high school, I am pretty sure that I was the only person I knew who heard "Annie." At least a few people I knew insisted that they were saying "Addie."

 

Stoner logic always amused me to no end. Every time I heard that line it was always accompanied by a level of smug self sureness that would send a shiver up my spine.

FOCUS: Incorrect lyrics was one of the many myriad reasons I was not allowed to have a microphone. It wasn't so much that I didn't know the lyrics, it was more that I liked my version of them better. The only time the band actually agreed with me was the chorus for Rock You Like a Hurricane....my version was:

Here I am, Fuck me like a freight train.

Subtle indeed.

 

That's hilarious.

I always thought that was partially intentional. The song is a tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughn. And, a lot of songs that are written in the studio begin with no words or unfinished lyrics, but they sing a scratch vocal with the right phrasing and melody, fixing the final lyrics later. So, I just always assumed they did that and Eddie said, fuck it. Leave it that way.

 

How is it about Stevie Ray Vaughn? I thought it was supposed to be an anti-war song.

To stay on topic, Nirvana's song "Tourettes/The Eagle Has Landed" was written under similar circumstances.
Badass song, even though you can't tell what the hell Kurt is saying:


Lastly, I think it should be said that Nirvana was superior to Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains was superior to both of them.

 

Up until a few years ago, my cousin couldn't understand why Elton John had such an infatuation with Tony Danza.